Sweet Potato Oatmeal Breakfast Casserole

February 22, 2011Angela (Oh She Glows)

by Angela (Oh She Glows) on February 22, 2011

I grew up enjoying my mom’s sweet potato casserole for every holiday and it was always a dish I just couldn’t get enough of. There is something magical about comforting and creamy sweet potatoes with an ooey gooey toasted marshmallow topping. When I started eating a vegan diet, I was determined to make a sweet potato casserole that would rock my world just like the one of my youth.

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Bring several cups of water to a boil in a medium sized pot. Add in the peeled and chopped sweet potato. Cook over medium heat, for about 5 minutes, until fork tender. Drain and set aside.

2. Give the pot a quick rinse and then add in the oats, milk, and chia seeds. Whisk well and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low-medium and cook for about 5-7 minutes, stirring frequently.

3. With a potato masher, mash in the cooked sweet potato and the banana into the pot. I left some chunks for texture. Now stir in the cinnamon, maple syrup, nutmeg, vanilla, and salt to taste. Adjust seasonings if necessary. Cook on low for another few minutes.

4. Make the crunchy pecan topping by mixing together the pecans, flour, Earth Balance (or butter), and brown sugar with a fork. until very clumpy. Pour the oatmeal into a baker dish (I used a 4 cup/8 inch casserole dish) and spread out evenly. Now sprinkle on the pecan topping.

5. Transfer the oats to a casserole dish (8inch/4cup or whatever you have!) and bake, uncovered, for 20 minutes, at 350F. After 20 minutes, set oven to BROIL and broil on low for a couple minutes, watching very closely so you do not burn the topping. Remove from oven and serve. makes 3-4 servings.

Note: You can reheat the oatmeal by mixing in a bit of milk and heating in the microwave. However, it is also very good COLD, straight from the fridge with a splash of milk too! YUM!

This is hands down the BEST spin-off oatmeal I have made yet. If you make one thing this week, you gotta make this.

The first thing you do is lightly cook the sweet potato for just 5 minutes until just fork tender. It cooks much faster if you cut it into 1 inch pieces. I used 2 cups raw sweet potato, which yields 1.5 cups cooked.

Now assemble the oatmeal ingredients:

For my first attempt, I used Bob’s Red Mill Kasha (roasted buckwheat) and I really did not like the texture, so I started over and used regular oats.

This is what it made in my first attempt with kasha:

I was not a fan of the taste or texture of Kasha in this recipe.

Back to oats!

I brought the milk, oats, and chia seeds to a boil and then reduced the heat and cooked for about 5-6 minutes. The chia seeds help soak up the milk, so if you are omitting the chia seeds you will likely have to reduce the milk.

You want it this consistency:

I used organic soy milk and it was a nice change in this oatmeal. Soy milk also pumps up the protein too. I like So Nice brand because it is organic, using non-GMO soybeans.

Now add in the cooked sweet potato and the banana and mash your little heart out with your (sa-weet) potato masher.

The banana and sweet potato pair wonderfully in this recipe! I left it a bit chunky because I knew my texture monster would be eating it.

Make the fabulous crunchy pecan topping…this topping brings the recipe to a new level.

Mix together with a fork until very clumpy. The topping tastes so good.

Sprinkle onto the oatmeal.

Wonderful.

You may be tempted to dig right in at this point…I say go for it if you want to…but if you bake it in the oven it will taste even better. The topping will get all crispy and buttery and the pecans will toast up into a rich nutty flavour.

After baking for 20 minutes at 350F and broiling for 2 minutes on low….golden, crispy magic happens.

Popcorn is truly evil. Rooms look so much cleaner (and bigger) without it.

To get the popcorn off you soak the ceiling heavily with water (we use 1/2 gallon water bottle sprayer) and shave it off with a drywall knife. Dump excess into a lined garbage pail lid and then finally into a garbage pail.

But first, lay down plastic all over the ground because it makes a HUGE mess.

It looks so much more white after removing the popcorn! We haven’t even painted a base coat yet. Instant facelift for the room. I told Eric it looks ‘10 years younger’. ;)

After we did that, we removed all of the wooden frames and then started patching the walls with drywall compound and sanding everything down. This is the worst part by far.

Today, I’m renting a steamer from Home Depot, so I can get off this pesky wallpaper. The old water and soap trick didn’t work one bit.

I have been making this for a while now and I used to follow your recipe exactly. I’ve started adding the zest of one orange to the oatmeal/sweet potato mixture, along with 1/4 tsp Chinese five spice, and two or three tablespoons of coconut to the topping and I love the new depth of flavor that it adds. Sometimes I use half coconut milk and half soy along with a tbs of protein powder for an more coconutty flavor. Thanks for this!

Lovely recipe! I love sweet – sweet potatoes and bananas :))
I’ve made this for my diner tonight and already tasted it… really good :)
However I’m not big fan of oatmeal. Do you think I can replace it (rolled oats) by millet?

I made this last night, and ate for breakfast this morning. It was delicious and I have no complaints. Usually I prefer my breakfast fruity, but I didn’t miss it in this casserole. The only thing I did differently was use walnuts in place of pecans. Next time I might add dates or raisins. Yum!

I made this this morning, and it’s seriously THE BEST THING I’VE EVER EATEN IN MY WHOLE LIFE. Sorry for the strong statement, but it’s true. Thanks Angela for the amazing recipe! You are truly an angel (like your name). Everything went so well together, and I can still taste the buttery flavor of the pecans in my mouth now. And it’s super healthy!!! I can see myself making this very often in the future.

So I’m prepping freezer meals (due with my 5th kiddo soon), and I am wondering your oppinion on freezing this. I tried to read through some comments, but didn’t see anything. My question… should I bake it before freezing, or just layer it in the casserole dish, freeze, and then bake it once it is thawed? What do you think?!

Being productive and prepping for the week ahead (naturally pulling some recipes from your site), I just made this for tomorrow’s breakfast. It smelled AWW-MAZING!
I pulled it out and there was just no way I couldn’t have some right away. I’m debating the merits about eating it all at once as I write this…oh boy…..heaven on a autumn Sunday evening.
Honestly, I really can’t thank you enough for all of your recipes. As gluten free and vegan for almost a year now, it certainly has it’s challenges (the rest of my family eats “normally.”) With recipes like this I find it hard to see what I am missing!!!

Oh Angela i’m OBSESSED with your reciepes! I am going to make all my Christmas meals with yours’ :D. I wanted to make this one for my family’s Christmas breakfast but i wanted to know if I could do it with apples, since not all of them are as much of a fan of sweet potatoes? And if yes, could I prep it the night before? Thanks!

I stumbled across this recipe right after Thanksgiving, when I was looking for something to do with my leftover sweet potatoes. I have made it two more times since then because it is soooo good! The last two times I made a double batch on a Sunday so we could have it for breakfast throughout the week. Just finished scrolling through your other oatmeal recipes, looks like we are going to have to give bananas foster a try. Thanks!

I made this exactly as outlined, except I replaced the pecans with sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds. I couldn’t believe how amazing the taste and texture turned out it! The only thing I plan to change in the future is to decrease the sweetener a tat. Eg in my next test run, I’ll use coconut sugar instead if brown sugar in the topping.
By the way, I baked it in a glass pie pan, which provided an inviting presentation.

Hi Laurie, It’s been a while since I made this and now I’m drooling at the thought of it after reading your review! Thanks so muc for trying it out and sharing your thoughts! I think it would be such a nice brunch addition too. Have you tried my baked carrot cake oatmeal yet? That one is one of my faves.